Positive Economic Development News was on the agenda for Laurens County Council this week, as Tuesday night’s meeting opened with Marvin Moss, Executive Director and Deputy Director Jon Coleman of the Laurens County Development Corporation updating council on their economic development efforts.
In a visual presentation entitled Accelerating Industrial Progress, Moss presented council with published statistics on the capital investment and job numbers in South Carolina from 2008 thru 2013.
Figures from the publication, In Focus, show that during the years 2008 through 2013 Laurens County was fifth in the state in capital investment, with $1,393,800,000. Moss noted we also had 2,039 new jobs created.
Counties with higher industrial investments than the almost $1.4 billion in Laurens county were Aiken, Anderson and Charleston in positions 4, 3 and 2. Spartanburg County had the highest investment in the state during the past six years with over $2.5 Billion.
Regarding Laurens County’s 5th place in investments statewide, Marvin Moss told County Council “It is really impressive to be ahead of Greenville County,” which ranked 8th eighth in the state.
Other figures presented to County Council Tuesday night showed that the average wage in Laurens County went up one dollar per hour, and that the unemployment rate was down to 7.8%, the lowest in five years.
Moss did tell council that, “We did miss many opportunities for new businesses to come here because we did not have buildings that they could occupy.” He noted a new “Spec Building” is now complete in Owings Industrial Park to help address that issue. As WLBG News has been reporting recently, two more “Spec Buildings” are in the proposal stages, a 100,000 square foot building proposed for Hunter Industrial Park in Laurens and a 50,000 square foot building planned for Clinton Corporate Park.